Francesco Bagnaia finished in third place in the Malaysian MotoGP, in a race where the pace was truly impressive. For the first time, the winner completed the race in Sepang in under 40 minutes, an improvement of over 15 seconds compared to the previous year. The all-time fastest lap in a race was also surpassed.
Asked in a press conference about whether this pace surprised him, the defending champion replied: ‘I’m always surprised with the pace we are having all the season, because what was like super fast last year, this year is pretty much normal. There we finished the race 15 seconds faster than the last year and last year we were two seconds ahead of [Fabio] Quartararo, but many seconds ahead of the guys behind. We increased a lot the performance this year, maybe also because all the Ducati bikes are so competitive and we are improving together’.
Despite expecting an improvement in pace, Bagnaia admitted that it exceeded expectations, emphasizing the considerable improvements in the performance of the bikes: ‘I was expecting a pace faster than the last year, but all the race in 1m59s was outstanding, considering that years ago going behind the two minutes was incredible and now the fastest lap in the race was 1m58.9s. I think we are increasing a lot the performance of our bike, of the championship, and this is fantastic’.